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Abstract
Poonachi or the story of a black goat is the first work of fiction the author wrote after he declared in 2015 that
Perumal Murugan the writer is dead and went into a self imposed literary exile. It is therefore a comeback novel for the author and presents before the reader a multilayered and complex tale featuring animals. “Poonachi or
the story of a black goat features animals that think and feel” (Translator’s note. Murugan171) . Poonachi
represents all domesticated animals who suffer at the hands of their human masters in a world dominated by human beings. Poonachi is invested with the ability of metacognition as she possesses an ability to think, reflect
on her own thoughts and feelings. She also ponders on the cruel treatment administered to other fellow goats at the hands of human beings. Her observations bring to focus the violence and abuse human beings unmindfully
mete out to all the non human species of animals on earth in the name of human supremacy. In Poonachi,
human interest and profit are the defining principles of all interactions between human beings and animals of other species. In this paper, I propose to study the various forms of violence and animal abuse in Poonachi in
the light of various social, cultural and ecological theories and show how Speciesism is always wrong